This 2006-2007 Progress Report and the Forward Programme for 2008-2009 provide a full stock-take of the Alliance’s work and an account of the new directions that work will take as the global portfolio of action and ideas on patient safety expands.
The Progress Report sets out another significant challenge that has been with us from the beginning: how can we show that we are being successful? Engagement, commitment and activity are vitally important and, as the report demonstrates, these are firmly established. We need, though, to go further and show that we are making a real difference to the people who experience health care around the world.
We will not rest until we can demonstrate that we are saving lives and reducing harm in measurable ways. That is why we are very pleased to have gained the agreement of Johns Hopkins University for the establishment of an evaluation unit to be led by Professor Peter Pronovost, and his Quality and Safety Group, who will work alongside all of our programme leads to ensure that “evaluation” is a core component of everything we do. This will enable our success to be judged in concrete and visible terms.
We start this report with an essay by Professor Peter Pronovost about the project he led in Michigan, which had at its heart the question, “how do we know we are safer?”
Making care safer, doing less harm and consigning to the history books some of today’s risks of health care remain the Alliance’s reason for being. We look forward to continue working with everyone on the inspiring agenda set out for our next Forward Programme.